A nurse tends a student injured in a cliff collapse that buried 16 high school children at a health school in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province.

Four girl students were killed and 12 others injured when a cliff fall buried school dormitories in Shaanxi Province, northwest China, on Saturday.

The cliff collapse around 12:30 pm also buried the canteen and toilet of the Health School of Fufeng County, according to Shaanxi provincial government on Sunday.

A shopkeeper opposite the school said he heard a loud noise around midday.

"I ran out of the shop and found the cliff on the other side of the road had fallen onto the school compound," said the man, "shortly after, ambulances and fire engines arrived."

The school dormitories, which had been listed for demolition because of unspecified safety concerns, were temporarily rented by another private school known as "Qiushi".

Qiushi school operators arranged more than 240 male and female students into four classes at the temporary school houses, where the students had been taking classes to prepare for the national college and university entrance exam in early June.

The fallen earth buried seven school bungalows, of which, five were used as dorms for girl students.

Altogether, 16 girl students were buried alive in the accident. So far, four have been confirmed dead and the others are injured.

One victim, who had slight injuries in the feet, said that when she and three other roommates were having lunch inside the dorm bricks started to fall, followed by the collapse of the entire ceiling.

All the injured are in hospital.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2008)